Believe What You Like But Know What You Must

People are free to be consumed with contemplating their existence, their origins, the origins of the universe, supreme beings, controllers of destiny or anything else. But solving "the Great Mystery" is neither a requirement of being Ohnkwe Ohnwe nor does it provide a path to righteousness. I maintain that spirituality does not require faith or the leaps that faith requires but rather awareness. If it helps to believe that "God has a plan" and we just must have faith that "He" knows what "He" is doing, then walk that path. My interest is in taking the mystery out of life by pointing to the obvious that is ignored everyday in the midst of fanatical ideology and the sometimes not too subtle influences of promoting beliefs over knowledge. I have said it before: “beliefs are what you are told, knowledge is what you experience”. I support a culture that prepares us to receive knowledge and to live a life with purpose. I am certainly not suggesting there is only one way to do that.

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Enough with the BS. Let's Talk About the Real Issue.

For weeks we have heard nothing but the UN this and the UN that; the DRIP, the "Special Rapporteur", the Permanent Forum. All for what? So we finally can have our issues, Native issues, heard by the WORLD, the international community, responsible nations. And what do we talk about? Access to sacred sites, a 500 year old decree by the Vatican and, of course, treaties.

So even while the dust was settling from all this running around to DC, NYC and elsewhere, who was knocking on our doors? The IRS. It seems the illegal imposition of taxation, travel restrictions, use of roadways and anything else the the state and feds can throw at us to kill any chance for an economy didn't make the cut when we had the "World Stage". Even the much exalted chiefs councils of Onondaga and Tonawanda got served by the IRS.

A couple of years ago when the State Department was holding its "Consultations" on rethinking the US support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples(DRIP), I turned to the audience in the auditorium of the National Museum of the American Indian, putting my back to the stage full of federal agency representatives and asked the room full of mostly tribal government employees why is it that they work for their own nations on their own lands yet pay a tax on their wage to another nation. In that session, I was they only one addressing US interference in Native trade and commerce as.

The single biggest problem on Native lands is poverty! All social ills come back to this. Can some of it be traced to the Discovery Doctrine or other means of stealing our lands? Sure. But today's genocidal policies are specifically about denying our own economic development. Taxation and the constant assault and/or interference with our right to freely sell our labor, goods and services is at its core. Every town, county, state and nation of the world markets its regulatory advantages to promote its economy, yet ours is criminalized. Even Native to Native trade, from one Native territory to another is under constant attack.

For anyone that would suggest; yeah, but at least we got casinos. Well let's look at that. When California failed in its attempt to shut down a small Native community's bingo hall in the Cabazon case before the US Supreme Court in 1987, what happened was a scramble by Congress to shove a law down the throats of the "federally recognized tribes" that placed both the states and feds squarely in the middle of the Golden Goose of "Indian Country" within the year. So the ONLY regulatory advantage that can be exploited is the one regulated through federally mandated gaming compacts with the states under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act which all too often has the states scooping large percentages from the till. Hell, even pull-tabs had federal agents snooping around on our lands under the authority of IGRA.

In spite of the President of the Seneca Nation's plea to the US Senate Finance Committee this week for tax reform or for an "experiment" in tax immunity, we do not need a Congress that does not represent us to change its tax laws that never should be applied to us to be rewritten to help us. We also do not need, as Mr. Porter suggested, for "federal Indian policy" to secure exclusive authority over all economic activity on Native lands to tribal governments as a matter of federal law. As a people who would never convey such authority to anyone, we view the right to sustain ourselves as our birthright. Mr. Porter must have forgotten that legitimate governments derive what authority they do have only from the consent of the governed, not from his idols in Washington. The people's authority to regulate their own economies is also the authority not to. It seems the concept of freedom without chaos has become almost forgotten, even by those who descended from those that taught the concept to the white man.

We don't need reparations, compensation, cash settlements, acts of Congress or rulings from a far too politicized Supreme Court. We need to have our trade, commerce and livelihoods left alone. The message the world should have heard from us over the last several weeks should have been some simple instructions to the most self righteous and hypocritical bastion of freedom and human rights: Stop your attempts to assess and collect tax, stop your seizures of our products, get out of our casinos, leave our paychecks alone, stop interfering with Native to Native trade and watch freedom work. Maybe something will be learned again. Or is that what everyone is afraid of?

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NYS Form CG-15 for Cigarette Use Tax

The applicable New York State use tax, New York City use tax, or combined state and city use taxes are imposed on cigarettes used in the state or within the state and New York City, unless:— the cigarette tax (imposed pursuant to Tax Law, section 471) has been paid, as evidenced by the presence of the New York State or New York State and New York City joint tax stamp affixed to the package of cigarettes; or— the cigarettes being used are specifically exempted from the cigarette tax by Tax Law section 471 (governmental use by the United States, New York State, and the United Nations, and use by authorized persons purchasing from a voluntary unincorporated organization of the armed forces of the U.S.); or— the cigarettes being used are brought into New York State (or into New York State and New York City) on or in the possession of the user, and the number of cigarettes does not exceed 400 (i.e., two cartons or less of standard packages of cigarettes).

Rahnatakaias Lies about the Changes that Will Come to Washington

PACT Act a hidden pwer grab for the states

Saying You're Proud Isn't Enough

It is not enough to say you are proud to be Native and proud of your culture. By removing the dust from our past, we reveal who we really are. Honor your ancestors by carrying knowledge forward.

From Jack Weatherford's "Indian Givers"

The most consistent theme in the descriptions penned about the New World was amazement at the Indians’ personal liberty, in particular their freedom from rulers and from social classes based on ownership of property. For the first time the French and the British became aware of the possibility of living in social harmony and prosperity without the rule of a king.

Our First Covenant

"Our first and most sacred covenant is with Nature and our Mother, the Earth."

Kaneseraga

Now They Are Using Our Wampum for Their Wampum

Click the image for the story

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YouTube Videos of the Hearing

Remove The Dust

We have lost our way, not our ways. We have let others define us with their telling of history, their view of spirituality, their laws and their economy. Our belief systems are not lost. They are covered with ignorance, fear and shame; just dust. It is time to Remove The Dust. This is the expression our ancestors used when it was time to remind ourselves who we are. By removing the dust from our old wampums we could revisit their meanings and most of all, talk about it. We are referred to as an oral society as if that is some how primative. Our voices are the most powerful tools we have. The ability to speak and listen is the power to teach and learn. For all the writing and reading we will ever do, it would teach us nothing if we couldn't discuss it. Technology now allows us to have voices in this new medium. So let's talk. Let's teach. Let's learn.

The First Post on Native PrideNovember 17, 2008

Flying the Flag

Photo by Sireena

Quote by Dragging Canoe

"Treaties with the whites may be ok for those who are too old to hunt or fight, as for me, I have my young warriors about me and we will keep our lands."

Bridges Reopen

Bridges blocked again, this time for 5 hours

Obama Speaks Out Three Days After the OPP Attack a Peaceful Demonstration at Tyendinega

"Whenever I see violence perpetrated on people who are peacefully dissenting, and whenever the American people see that, I think they are rightfully troubled. I think it would be wrong for me to be silent about what we've seen over the last few days."

Barack Obama - June 15, 2009

Yeah right! You didn't really think he was talking about us, did you? (see the June 12, 2009 post)

OPP Attack Mohawk Protesters

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The two most recognizable flags in Indian Country: The Warrior Flag and The Hiawentha Belt Flag fly at the abandoned Canadian border facility. (click the photo for ICT article)